{"id":34524,"date":"2020-05-26T14:00:49","date_gmt":"2020-05-26T14:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2020\/05\/26\/war-rhetoric-surrounds-covid-surveillance\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T18:11:59","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T18:11:59","slug":"war-rhetoric-surrounds-covid-surveillance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/opinion\/2020\/05\/26\/war-rhetoric-surrounds-covid-surveillance\/","title":{"rendered":"War rhetoric surrounds COVID surveillance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Deployments of technology to help tackle the coronavirus are taking hold around the world, from London to Moscow, from Singapore to Seoul, from New Delhi to Beijing. Governments and companies, separately and cooperatively, are offering digital approaches to unprecedented times. Yet the design, use, and post-pandemic sunsetting of these technologies aren\u2019t the only critical points of discussion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Important as well is the language used to frame these surveillance measures \u2014 which in many countries is rhetoric of war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This may seem entirely benign, and perhaps it\u2019s intended that way, a mere articulation of the crisis\u2019 unprecedented speed and scale. But governments framing COVID-19 responses in the language of war risks citizens blindly accepting pandemic surveillance as necessity\u2014and it obscures important questions about public health data collection in particular.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Let\u2019s begin across the Atlantic. At the podium of his Jerusalem office, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jpost.com\/health-science\/watch-live-netanyahu-addresses-israels-plans-amid-coronavirus-panic-620971\">announced<\/a> in March that the government was deploying counterterrorism surveillance tools against coronavirus carriers. Netanyahu cited a go-ahead from Israel\u2019s Justice Ministry to use these measures without consent \u2014 specifically, <a href=\"https:\/\/techpolicy.org.il\/brief-on-digital-means-employed-by-the-government-of-israel-re-covid-19\/\">retrieval of cellular metadata<\/a> on citizens\u2014to contain the outbreak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Coupled right alongside this announcement? Talk of the coronavirus as a \u201cwar\u201d facing society. \u201cWe are at war with an enemy: the coronavirus,\u201d Netanyahu said. He then <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/us-health-coronavirus-israel\/israel-to-use-anti-terror-tech-to-counter-coronavirus-invisible-enemy-idUSKBN21113V\">branded<\/a> COVID-19 an \u201cinvisible enemy that must be located.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This rhetoric is unlikely a coincidence. \u201cSecurity requirements have always been a strong argument which may easily trump other considerations,\u201d Limor Shmerling Magazanik, the managing director of the Israel Tech Policy Institute, told me. \u201cThe dominance of the Defense Ministry and the defense agencies is felt in budget debates annually, in the influence on market development in industry and high-tech sectors.\u201d While privacy was raised during internal government debate on COVID-19 surveillance, she added, this rhetoric of war is worth contemplating \u201cin an instance that involves extreme risks to civil liberties.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Netanyahu certainly painted a portrait of necessity: \u201cIn all my years as prime minister, I have avoided using these means among the civilian public,\u201d he said, \u201cbut there is no choice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Israel isn\u2019t the only country invoking war language as the state ramps up surveillance. Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is widely employing digital surveillance to track those violating quarantine, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/us-health-coronavirus-russia-putin\/invoking-medieval-invaders-putin-rallies-russians-against-coronavirus-idUSKBN21Q1WQ\">likened<\/a> containing the pandemic to fighting medieval invasions. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (whose government is also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/sections\/goatsandsoda\/2020\/04\/12\/828843214\/an-indian-state-tells-quarantined-folks-a-selfie-an-hour-will-keep-the-police-aw\">upping surveillance<\/a>) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-asia-india-52081396\">called<\/a> the country\u2019s lockdown measures part of waging \u201cwar against coronavirus.\u201d \u201cIt is a battle of life and death,\u201d he said, \u201cand we have to win it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the United States, similar proclamations are plentiful. The phrase \u201call-out war\u201d in particular appears to be the government line: President Trump <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/briefings-statements\/remarks-president-trump-vice-president-pence-members-coronavirus-task-force-press-briefing-16\/\">said<\/a> as much in a White House briefing last month; the same day, a U.S. military commander <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defense.gov\/Explore\/News\/Article\/Article\/2133487\/general-compares-dods-covid-19-response-to-all-out-war\/\">echoed<\/a> the \u201call-out war\u201d verbiage. Trump had made other war-metaphor comments <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/briefings-statements\/remarks-president-trump-vice-president-pence-members-coronavirus-task-force-press-briefing-28\/\">multiple<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/briefings-statements\/remarks-president-trump-members-coronavirus-task-force-press-briefing\/\">other<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/time.com\/5806657\/donald-trump-coronavirus-war-china\/\">times<\/a> in April and March as well. This all took place as private companies introduce contact tracing apps and as the US government considers its own surveillance measures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Deeming this rhetoric \u201csurprising\u201d would be a far cry from the truth. All too familiar to Americans are the numerous public crises that are also, apparently, wars: the war on drugs, the war on crime, the war on poverty, the war on science. Technology policy has itself been <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/cold-war-analogies-are-warping-tech-policy\/\">warped<\/a> by an overuse of misleading Cold War analogies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But it\u2019s worth asking what happens when language of national security necessity enters public conversation about surveillance in the middle of a pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Thinking in terms of armed conflict skews the conversation about who should determine the surveillance\u2019s potential effectiveness in containing the virus. Battlefield imagery might suggest the military. Big Tech\u2019s eagerness to act might suggest technologists without infectious disease expertise. Yet the real answer in a pandemic should be doctors (and that\u2019s medical doctors who understand pandemics, not just <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2020\/04\/06\/politics\/peter-navarro-social-scientist-cnntv\/index.html\">anyone with a doctorate<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Such framing also obscures questions about what may or may not be different about surveillance for public health purposes compared to, say, surveillance for purposes of counterterrorism. For instance, it\u2019s possible \u2014 given the right privacy protections and oversight \u2014 that citizens may be more willing to have their data used by the government to contain a pandemic than to stop a crime. It\u2019s also possible citizens are more concerned about use of their health data, especially when involving private companies like Google who already <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/google-s-secret-project-nightingale-gathers-personal-health-data-on-millions-of-americans-11573496790\">hoard health information<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There are additional differences between data collection for public health purposes and surveillance in an armed conflict. It\u2019s not happening on a literal battlefield. It should be focused on citizens within one\u2019s country. And its effectiveness is arguably helped by transparency, not secrecy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Blurring these lines is part of why wartime framings can precipitate paradigms of \u201csecurity versus X\u201d\u2014often false dichotomies with dangerous effects. Stacey Gray, senior counsel at the Future of Privacy Forum, articulated this fact in recently submitted <a href=\"https:\/\/www.commerce.senate.gov\/services\/files\/094DF2E6-0C56-4952-8085-FB6F4AA8EE00\">answers<\/a> to a Senate hearing on big data and pandemic containment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cPrivacy versus effectiveness of data-based solutions against the spread of COVID-19 is a false trade-off,\u201d she wrote. \u201cThoughtful, sophisticated solutions can provide effective solutions that also protect personal data.\u201d Articulations of an app\u2019s purpose and design are imperative for judging these characteristics of effectiveness and privacy protection\u2014further grounds to not hastily launch surveillance programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And if Washington does roll out its own surveillance \u201csolutions\u201d \u2014 in addition to private-sector efforts like the recent Apple-Google <a href=\"https:\/\/www.apple.com\/newsroom\/2020\/04\/apple-and-google-partner-on-covid-19-contact-tracing-technology\/\">partnership<\/a> \u2014 does invoking language of war make it more likely the American public accepts government surveillance measures uncritically, while eschewing questions of false paradigms? Quite possibly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This would be a problem because there are many factors that public dialogue shouldn\u2019t just blow past: legislative oversight like executive branch reporting to Congress; judicial oversight like reviewing government requests for health data; transparency requirements like clearly communicating data collection with the American people; \u201csunset provisions\u201d that curtail the surveillance after a given amount of time. Policymakers might even contemplate setting up an external privacy advisory board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Technology could help contain the pandemic. Yet expanding government surveillance in a crisis, particularly in cooperation with a relatively unregulated private sector, also prompts important questions. As citizens worldwide scrutinize expanding surveillance measures like contact tracing phone apps and facial recognition, and witness more broadly the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/news\/our-columnists\/we-wont-know-the-exact-moment-when-democracy-dies\">creeping expansion of state authorities<\/a>, we should scrutinize the rhetoric of war used to frame our thinking as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.twitter.com\/jshermcyber\" target=_blank><i>Justin Sherman<\/i><\/a><i> is a fellow at the Atlantic Council\u2019s Cyber Statecraft Initiative.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Technology policy has itself been warped by an overuse of misleading Cold War analogies and that&#8217;s evident in the recent language surrounding the pandemic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":28974,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":17,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3848],"class_list":["post-34524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"KCLDISL5IBEGZBDAB2N3KWBS4A","arc_canonical_url":"\/opinion\/2020\/05\/22\/war-rhetoric-surrounds-covid-surveillance\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized 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